Make sweets for your sweetie

Linda Bennett, owner of the Purple Spoon of New Windsor, admits that butter and sugar frequently define her favorite foods.

Deborah J. Botti

Linda Bennett, owner of the Purple Spoon of New Windsor, admits that butter and sugar frequently define her favorite foods.

"I started baking as soon as I could stand on a stool to reach the counter. For six years, I made chocolate chip cookies — and ate the cookie dough — until I realized there were other recipes," she says. "It's the only thing I can do all day, every day, and still enjoy."

Bennett founded the Purple Spoon two years ago as a baking blog, an online venue on which to share her kitchen creations — about 200 or so thus far.

"So a few years ago, I became slightly obsessed with Julia Child and one of the first episodes of 'The French Chef' that I saw was her 'Apple Dessert' or 'La Tarte Tatin.' As she's explaining how to slice and prepare the apples she just slips in, 'and stir it with a purple spoon.' I just loved how absolutely random a comment it was and so it just stuck with me. I'd like to think that stirring everything with a purple spoon just makes it better," says Bennett.

Because she does not yet have a physical location, although that is a 2013 goal, Bennett rents the professional kitchen at Mountain Restaurant Supply & Cooking Academy in New Windsor, from which she hosts baking classes or prepares treats to sweeten special gatherings from birthday parties to showers.

Bennett experiments in her own kitchen until she gets the recipe down right.

"With baking, you can't just add a little of this or that. The flour, butter, eggs have to be precise (to achieve the desired result)," she says. "Once I was toying with a blueberry coffee cake. It overflowed; it seemed to explode in the oven. ... It was baked all the way through, so I made a Blueberry Cake Parfait, with ice cream and caramel sauce. It was delicious."

Bennett has no qualms about baking just for herself — sometimes sharing with her husband and children is even more of a challenge — but not as big a challenge as the cleanup. "I'm the world's messiest baker," she says.

Bennett's next baking class is set for 6-9 p.m. Thursday at Mountain Restaurant Supply & Cooking Academy, 12 Windsor Highway, New Windsor. The class has a chocolate theme, just in time for Valentine's Day. Cost is $35.

For more information, visit thepurplespoon.wordpress.com or mountainrestaurantsupply.com

Following, Bennett shares some favorite recipes for Valentine's Day.

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake

Yields 6-8 servings

An old-fashioned shortcake with a twist. With its delightfully crunchy outside and tender, fluffy inside, the traditional buttermilk biscuit is infused with rich Dutch cocoa and studded with smooth dark chocolate. Sweet, juicy strawberries and freshly whipped cream make this a unique treat that is light and delectable. For the best results, keep ingredients cold, and don't overmix or overwork the dough.

1 pound fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled and sliced

1 tablespoon sugar

Balsamic vinegar

1½ cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa powder*

¼ cup sugar

2½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

4½ tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces

2 oz. (½ cup) dark chocolate, chopped

¾ cup buttermilk, cold

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons sugar

*This is one place you'll want to use a good quality Dutch processed cocoa powder. I use Cacao Barry — Extra Brute, which has a deep reddish-brown color and intense chocolate flavor.

1. Place the sliced strawberries in a bowl, sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon of sugar and add a small splash of balsamic vinegar. Stir to completely combine, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl and whisk until completely combined.

3. Add the butter to the dry ingredients, and cut in with two knives, a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture resembles course crumbs and the largest butter pieces are no bigger than the size of small peas. Stir in the chopped chocolate.

4. Stir a teaspoon of vanilla into the buttermilk and add all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir with a fork just until the dough comes together in clumps.

5. Knead the dough in the bowl two or three times, folding the dough over itself, just into a rough ball and then transfer to a lightly floured surface. There will be floured bits still left, just press them into the dough as you go. Cover with plastic wrap or parchment paper, and roll or pat out to 1-inch thick. Cut into 2-inch rounds with a biscuit or cookie cutter dipped in flour. Make sure to push the cutter straight down and pull back up without twisting so that the biscuits will rise evenly.

Place the rounds on the prepared baking sheet in two rows spaced about two inches apart. (You can re-roll the scraps once, any more than that and you risk kneading the dough too much and you'll end up with tough biscuits.) Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. The biscuits will be very fragrant and the tops will look dry. Allow to cool slightly. They can be served warm or at room temperature; I prefer them warm.

6. To serve: Place the whipping cream and teaspoon of vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Beat on high until frothy, add the sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Cut open a biscuit on a plate, spoon some strawberries with juice over one side and dollop with cream. Top with the other half of the biscuit and enjoy!

Brownie Shortbread Cookie Pops

Yields 9 cookie pops

From cake to brownies, pops are making quite a splash in the realm of baking. To play off the trend, buttery shortbread dough and fudgy chocolate brownies join forces to create a moist and gooey treat that's fun for the whole family.

Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1½ cups sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 large egg yolk, at room temperature

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

Shortbread Cookie

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup powdered sugar

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup dark chocolate chips, melted according to package directions

Sprinkles

Cookie sticks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-by-9-inch square baking pan with foil so that it hangs over the sides, spray bottom and sides with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate together until almost completely melted. Remove from heat and whisk until completely smooth (this keeps the mixture from getting too hot and cooking the eggs). Whisk in the sugar, then eggs and egg yolk one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Add flour and salt together, stirring just until combined.

With each ingredient that is added only stir in until it is incorporated into the batter. Over mixing the batter can result in tough brownies.

3. Spread into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Brownies are done when they are set in the middle and a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Move baking pan to a wire rack and let cool in pan completely.

4. For the shortbread cookies: In a large mixing bowl (or bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), cream the butter on medium speed of an electric mixer, about three minutes. Add the powdered sugar and continue to beat for about another three minutes or until creamy and smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl periodically with a rubber spatula. Beat in vanilla. Add flour and salt all at once and beat on low speed until the dough comes together in clumps. Pat the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until the dough is firm but still pliable.

Once chilled, place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper and roll out to slightly less than a quarter-inch thick. Cut out 18 hearts with a 2-inch heart cookie cutter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You may have to re-roll the dough scraps once to get all 18 cookies. Return the cookies to the refrigerator for another 10 minutes until the dough is firm. If desired, brush half of the cookie tops with egg white and sprinkles for decoration. Bake in 350-degree F oven for eight minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are a light golden brown. Move cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. To assemble: Lift the brownies out of the pan by the foil "sling." Cut out nine hearts using the same heart cookie cutter as the cookies. Push a cookie stick through the center of each brownie heart from the bottom but don't go all the way through the top. Using a knife or spoon brush the entire brownie with the melted chocolate. Sandwich the brownie between two sugar cookies so that the bottoms of the cookies are facing the brownie. Sprinkle the exposed brownie edge with sprinkles and place the cookie pop on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining brownies and cookies.

When finished assembling, place the pops in the refrigerator to harden the chocolate for about 10 minutes. Remove from the refrigerator, store in an airtight container at room temperature or package the pops individually.

Bourbon Brown Butter Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Frosting

Yields 12-15 cupcakes

Browned butter and bourbon put a grown-up spin on the classic vanilla cupcake. Each cupcake is topped with generous mounds of lightly sweetened, creamy vanilla frosting and a to-die-for caramel drizzle.

Caramel Sauce

¾ cup heavy cream

1 cup sugar

4 tablespoons (half a stick) of unsalted butter, softened

Cupcakes

1½ cups cake flour (not self-rising)

1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoons salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup milk, at room temperature

1½ tablespoons bourbon

Frosting

1 cup whole milk

¾ cup flour

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used salted this time for a sweet/salty touch — yum!)

2 teaspoons vanilla

¾ cup sugar

1. For the caramel sauce: Heat the heavy cream in the microwave or stovetop just until hot to the touch. Place the cup of sugar in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk and allow it to melt and bubble until it turns an amber color. Turn off the heat and quickly whisk in the half-stick of butter and then whisk in the cream until fully incorporated. Pour the sauce into a container to cool to room temperature.

2. For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a cupcake pan with liners. In a small bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

3. To brown the butter: melt the half-cup of butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Continue cooking, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter stops foaming and browned bits start to form at the bottom and the butter has a nutty smell, about five minutes. Immediately remove from heat and pour into a medium-size bowl. Whisk in the brown sugar and then the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla. Sift and whisk in half the flour mixture. Whisk in the milk and then sift and whisk in the rest of the flour. Stir in the bourbon. The batter will be very thin and it may have a few lumps. Whisk the lumps to smooth out a bit, but the cupcakes will be just fine.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the liners. (I use a quarter-cup measuring cup and fill each about three-quarters of the way up.) Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the tops bounce back by touching them and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for five minutes in their pans before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.

5. For the frosting: Place the cup of whole milk in a small saucepan. Sprinkle the flour over the milk, a quarter cup at a time and whisk until smooth. Place the saucepan over low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes thick and pulls into a ball. Remove from the heat and place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the mixture and tuck around it to make sure there are no exposed parts. Refrigerate until cooled to room temperature or colder (at least 30 minutes).

In a large bowl, cream the butter. Add the cooled flour milk mixture and beat until well blended. Mix in the vanilla. With the mixer on medium speed, gradually add the sugar and then continue to beat the icing for an additional 10-12 minutes until noticeably whiter and creamy, stopping periodically to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pipe onto the cupcakes, and then drizzle with the caramel sauce. Store covered at room temperature for up to two days.